Despite the steep soup selling price, thousands have been eating in Edinburgh Castle's Redcoat Cafe for the last three decades without much consternation. 

Historic Environment Scotland (HES), the quango responsible for looking after the Reekie landmark, says they’ve only ever had one complaint about the name.

However, over the weekend, when the Castle’s Twitter announced that the snack bar, recently closed for refurbishment, was open again there was a flurry of criticism. 

“How about a swift rebrand,” said Douglas Chapman, the SNP MP for Dunfermline and West Fife.

The former Scottish Government transport minister, Kevin Stewart tweeted: “This can’t be for real, surely? If so, this is a huge misjudgement.”

More than 3,500 people have since signed a petition calling for the cafe to be renamed.

Most read in politics:

When I ask Professor Sir Tom Devine, one of Scotland’s most celebrated historians, why the Redcoats and the Jacobites still evoke such strong emotions, he replies by referring to the lack of complaints when the caff first opened.

“It didn't evoke these emotions when this name was given to this place. There is a specific time frame, chronology."

“It could well be that people of a nationalist persuasion given, if you like, the recent troubles, are a bit more sensitive about the cause. But again, that is merely speculation," he adds.

The academic - who came out in support of Scottish independence ahead of the 2014 referendum - suggested that another part of the reason for the high emotion was hit TV series, Outlander.

The hugely popular show - now entering its eighth series - tells the story of a time-travelling nurse who falls out of 1945 and finds herself in the Jacobite rising where she falls in love with a hunky highlander.

The baddie is a particularly nasty redcoat. Prof Devine says the Diana Gabaldon books and shows play into a sort of Scottish version of the Lost Cause narrative, which saw supporters of the confederacy try to rewrite the history of the US Civil War, making them plucky losers, their cause still pure. 

The Herald: The Redcoats unexpectedly found themselves in the line of sight this weekThe Redcoats unexpectedly found themselves in the line of sight this week

While Jacobitism was concerned with the restoration of the Stuart dynasty, Prof Devine says there has always been some kind of link between the cause and the constitution.

With unhappiness in the early days of the Union, because the economic dividend promised had failed to materialise, the expatriate court of the Stuarts suggested that a restoration could see the Union come to an end.

“So at that point, at least historically, there was a linkage between the success of the Jacobite cause and the breaking of the 1707 Union.

“The Stuarts were not restored. And one of the principles for that was the horrendous destruction of the Jacobite army at Culloden by redcoats.

“All the pictorial evidence then and since about Culloden depicts the Hanoverian army dressed in red tunics.

“So there has been a strong association between Culloden and between redcoats and the independence issue.

The Herald: Edinburgh Castle's Redcoat CafeEdinburgh Castle's Redcoat Cafe (Image: David McKelvey)

“Though I'm not certain whether many supporters of independence today are aware of that linkage in the early 18th century between an independence dynamic and a Jacobite success dynamic.”

He points to the Cairn at Culloden, erected in 1881 and the plaque which reads “The graves of the gallant Highlanders who fought for Scotland and Prince Charles are marked by the names of their clans.”

“That was a major development as far as the association between Jacobitism being a cause of Scotland versus England.

“And that of course, especially for those people who are not historically aware or educated, that has become almost a fixed belief since then.

“And the reality, of course, is that the final Jacobite rising was a civil war in Scotland. The vast majority of lowland Scots, especially outside the northeast, being Presbyterian in religion were stubbornly and passionately opposed to the restoration because it would, in their reckoning, mean the return of the hated religion of Roman Catholicism.”

I must admit when I learned the name of the cafe, I was a little surprised. 

HES, claims it simply “reflects the military history which is told throughout the castle.”

Nevertheless, they have now committed to conduct a review into the eatery’s moniker, and also of the adjoining Jacobite function suite.

Which prompts the question, what should the cafe be called? Suggestions welcomed.